This chapter from Coding Faster: Getting More Productive with Microsoft Visual Studio focuses on working with documents in the File Tab Channel as well as ways to navigate better. Several advanced topics, such as creating custom file extensions and working with previous versions are covered as well.

“He turned off the word processor, realizing just a second after he’d flicked the switch that he’d forgotten to save the document. Well, that was all right. Maybe it had even been the critic in his subconscious, telling him the document wasn’t worth saving.”

—Stephen King, “Secret Window, Secret Garden” in “Four Past Midnight”

Documents serve as the cornerstone of your activities in Visual Studio. Writing code, debugging code, creating interfaces, or just about anything else you do is done with documents. Yet we still seem to take our documents for granted. This chapter focuses on working with documents in the File Tab Channel as well as ways to navigate better. Several advanced topics, such as creating custom file extensions and working with previous versions are covered as well.

04.01 Insert Documents to the Right of Existing Tabs

WINDOWS

Alt,T, O

MENU

Tools | Options | Environment | Documents

VERSIONS

2010

CODE

vstipEnv0001

By default, Visual Studio 2010 opens up new tabs to the left of existing ones, as shown in the following illustration.

You now have an option to put newly opened documents in the file channel to the right of existing tabs.

Just go to Tools | Options | Environment | Documents, and select the Insert Documents To The Right Of Existing Tabs option.